May helping unlock Lewis' potential

BBC News

17-06-2025

Hull KR boss Willie Peters believes scrum-half Tyrone May has helped to unlock the full potential of Man of Steel Mikey Lewis this season.May recently signed a two-year contract extension to keep him at Craven Park until 2027 following the Robins' Challenge Cup victory at Wembley.And head coach Peters is in no doubt about May's impact on Lewis and what he brings to the table as the club look to follow up their recent success with a Grand Final win."Tyrone obviously got us to a Grand Final last season and helped us win a Challenge Cup this year, so he is a really important part of what we do," Peters told BBC Radio Humberside."People see Mikey Lewis scoring a try and the last pass, but Tyrone plays a big part in the lead up to that and Mikey would be the first one to acknowledge that."Their combination has grown. Tyrone is the one on the ball and the one who plays through that middle third and organises our attack."What Mikey can do is make something out of nothing and score tries from halfway. But Mikey needs space, he needs to be freed up and that person that frees him is Tyrone."May, who joined Rovers from Catalans Dragons in 2024, had offers from the National Rugby League but chose to commit to two more years of Super League.Peters believes potentially winning a Grand Final was one of the drivers behind May's decision to stay, after they were narrowly denied by Wigan last season."Obviously you want to lock down key players, but we need to make sure Tyrone wanted to stay for the right reasons - because he wanted to be here, not because he had to be," he said."That was the case and it is obviously great that we can lock our spine down and great that we have probably got the team for next year."Hull KR go to Castleford on Thursday and after the euphoria of Wembley and a triumphant return to Craven Park with a 68-6 win over Catalans last Friday, Peters says it will be "back to business as usual"."We are certainly not going into this game with a complacent frame of mind. We are going over there knowing what to expect," he added."We won our first (trophy) in a while and naturally we want to go after more, but we are not getting carried away or getting ahead of ourselves."There is a lot of hard work that starts this week against Castleford, who played well against [Hull] FC last week."